Cocktails at the Centre of the Earth - Review

Most of the time I go to the theater, I spend a huge amount of time evaluating every little thing about the production.  Less about the performance and direction of the performance and more about the lighting or how the show comes off from a stage management perspective.  Why?  Well. . . I'm a stage manager, so I am always interested in how other stage managers make a show go well.  Our jobs are to make the performance go well and look good!

I have to say - when I watched Cocktails at the Centre of the Earth, written and directed by Simon Astor, I did no such thing.  This tells me two things - 1) the Stage Manager rocked (I subsequently learned she does) and 2) the show rocks!  I rarely enjoy a show and just have fun - rare (and I even mean when I go to a huge production like Mama Mia or the like).

In the interest of full disclosure, I do know Simon Astor and several of the performers involved.  I am, perhaps, biased, and that is probably a huge reason for why I attended.  However, my bias does not outweigh the sheer delight I had watching the show.

I am not all that familiar with the steampunk sub-genre except for the cool looking outfits I see when it's a steampunk pub crawl on Capitol Hill, so this glimpse into their world was quite fun!  The story takes you on boats and blimps (or the steampunk equivalent word), under water and ultimately to the centre of the earth.  There are the elite, the wanna-be elite, the educated and inventive, the hard working blue collar workers, the competing performance artists (you'll see what I mean), the oppressed, a real robot and clouds  and sea horses.  You thinking, can that actually make any sense?  YES!

AND IT'S FUN!!!!

Not only is it fun, it's clever, silly and a good time.  The music, done by Meg van Huygen (whom I know as a friend, but didn't know was a talented musician/composer) complimented the clever dialog and itself was clever and interesting.  It isn't every day you listen to music where an accordion is center stage and good!  The band also backed several musical numbers (see, I'm telling you - FUN!) where several really talented vocalists were showcased.  Yes, an accordion backed some rockin' vocals.  Clearly Simon and Meg know how each other thinks.  This added tremendously to my enjoyment.

It's a huge cast.  In fact, when I was perusing the playbill prior to the performance, I thought, how am I going to keep them all straight?  But, again, the clever writing helped me right through my trepidation.  There are too many I liked so here are a few big stand outs for me.  Jonah Martin was hilarious.  He plays about a thousand people, or really one person with a thousand names in several places.  He cracked me up every time the scene changed and he came on stage.  I really did look forward to the beginning of each scene because of his performance.  Katherine Karaus (Patricia) and Monica Wulzen (Dovecote) play perfect bad girl team beauties. Katherine's innocent, adorable bad girl persona was spot on while Monica's dedicated, sexy bad girl persona will give you the chills when she sings (yep, she sings - it's hot!). Kai Curtis' silent movie skills were phenomenal and Todd Hull, Josh Hartvigston, and Laurel Ryan get huge props for their comedic timing.

There are so many things I didn't tell you about this show (talking foxes, peas, a doctor named bunny, oh and BURLESQUE - to name a few) that you'll need to attend to consume some Cocktails at the Centre of the Earth (and btw - Annex's cocktails were good AND apropos).